ISO: Outstanding new beers released in 2020

Boulevard made two of the best new beers (I assume they were new) that I had this year: Brandy Land and Rye on Rye Maple.

 

Holy crud, I totally forgot about Revolution Thundertaker! It’s an Imperial Rye Stout aged in Blanton’s and Buffalo Trace barrels selected by Binny’s (local mega-store chain). This is easily one of the best BBA beers I’ve had and surprisingly easy to obtain. The reviews basically mirror my buddies’ reactions and are a testament to the quality and care that Revolution is taking with its barrel program.
As for me, when I opened the first can my wife (in another room) said “Are you drinking whisky? I can smell it all the way over here!” The aroma is that intense but the taste is complex and layered. There is an easy elegance to the beer that most brewers just can’t match.

 

The gang at Turning Point have been turning out consistently good Double and Triple IPAs that kept me away from the big liquor store for a couple of months. Supporting my very most local brewer and happy with their offerings. My 'fridge is full. I learned to keep up because it constantly changes. Fresh too. Days old rather than months old makes a difference. You learn that. That hard way.

https://www.turningpointbeer.com/

 

I’ve had literally hundreds of good and new beer this year. I’ll just sort out the best, and ones I’m pretty sure were first released this year...

Pliny for President -Russian River
Hypermash Hydra - BL
Fat Bear - Hop Butcher
Absence Illuminated - SARA
Slushy xl Dragons Lair - 450N
Chasing Darkness - Timber Ales
West Coast Kiwi - North Park
All private press brewing releases so far.
Hot Pink Bladezzz - Alvarado+HPB
Surge Capacity - SARA
Tidal - HOMES brewing
Dexters Marine Lab - Humble Sea
Foggiest Window - Trillium

 

This is the only beer I had in 2020 that has enough reviews to be considered world class. Perennial Coffee Stout
https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/25888/457684/?view=beer&sort=&start=0

There were a few others I would consider world class but there were too few reviews for them to score. I thought it was a pretty shitty year for beer with trends deviating further from what I find drinkable.

 

That was a really good one, hope I see it again.

 

Wren House x Horus x Superstition - Poor attendance

Mead barrel fermented lager. Super crisp, with a slight berry jammyness from the barrel on the finish

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8SGCzCpfKZ/


Wren House x Wayfinder x Holy Mountain

My beer of the year. Helles lager collab. Beautiful crackery/toasty malt with a touch of floral hop character, slight minerality, and a hint of bitterness on the finish, making you want another sip

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDKhTW-p7hr/


Monkish x Trillium - Pipeless Whirlpool

Probably my favorite IPA of the year. NE TIPA with Citra Incognito and Galaxy. Huge passionfruit/guava/pineapple notes, with some resin and balancing bitterness on the finish.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-py6F8pC96/


Russian River - Pliny for President

DDH Pliny the Elder. This was fantastic. The nose is incredible, crisp resinous finish with some orange/grapefruit notes. An amped-up PTE, rather than its own thing like PTY.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBeuKYKJNbT/


Tree House - Vanilla Bean Truth

22 month bourbon BA imperial stout with Madagascar vanilla. Was really surprised by how great this was. Super vanilla forward, think marshmallow/vanilla frosting. Base beer is super chocolatey with the barrel tempering the vanilla and structuring the beer. Medium body allows this to be nimble despite the pastry vibes from the hefty vanilla addition. Love the 12oz bottle, allows me to drink this by myself without needing to have friends!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG3cXdolEDr/


Cycle - Maple MW

Maple barrel-aged stock ale. Maple bomb. Ridiculous beer, saturated with syrup, I love it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-dmEZppcU8/


Trillium x Vitamin Sea - Channel Charge

Double NEIPA with Citra and Rakau. After becoming disillusioned with Trillium over the last year or two, formerly one of my favorite breweries, this is a return to the quality I expect. Huge orange/mango with a touch of bitterness on the finish to balance. Great body


Structure - BBA Feral Bones

14 month Buffalo Trace BA with cacao and coconut. This is one of the better coconut stouts I’ve had in a while. Coconut it the most prominent flavor but the barrel character plays really nicely off of it. Body is full without being gloopy/syrupy. Hard to tell where the base beer ends and the cacao starts but this is an extremely cohesive, nuanced beer.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CFN1phWppj-/

 

Really regretting not buying this on Tavour when I had the chance. I have no problem shelling out money like that for beer but relative to their barleywines, Anchorage didn't have an amazing track record when it comes to stouts before this. Would drop that money on ADWTD without thinking.

Fellow private press member, I loved the first two beers. Not quite as much as the others I listed but I think the beers will be getting even better with longer barrel times

 

Evil Twin - ET Stay Home #1 Sour IPA w/ blueberry and raspberry. This was my only 5/5 of the year. The was so successful it inspired a ton of follow up variants but the first one was perfection. Some people won't agree with this because it was so heavily fruited by I found love in a glass. It was still noticeably hoppy though and it played beautifully with the sweetness ad tartness of the fruit.

https://untappd.com/b/evil-twin-brewing-nyc-et-stay-home-blueberry-raspberry/3750936

I will come back and add some other beers I enjoyed a lot this year (and their were a lot...) but that original ET Stay Home deserved its own post and off the top of my head nothing else this year got a 5 from me. I almost never give 5/5's and this was the only one of 2020 so far.

 

Took your advice and visited Wheatland Springs on Saturday. They didn’t have Corn Crib on tap which was a bummer. I had their Pilsner, Belgian Pale Ale, IPA and Imperial Stout. All very solid. Only complaint... $9 pint pours for a Pilsner? $18 4 packs for a Pilsner? I guess that’s Loudon County (wealthiest in US or near the top) pricing for you.

 

Yeah, they've only brewed Corn Crib twice and it goes pretty quickly. I hope they brew it more in 2021, but we'll see. Regarding their pricing, I agree that it's steep, but I believe it's due to the locally sourced ingredients vs Loudon County. I mean, being in Loudon definitely helps to be able to sell at those prices, but I think that there is a cost component driving it too.

Funny enough, the Pilsner is the only lager of theirs I haven't had.

 

Going to second others' mentions of Central Waters Brandy BA Barleywine and Bell's Salut au Monde. Also going to add Central Waters Double Barrel Stout and draft-only Lakefront offering Sømmer Kveik Ale that absolutely nailed the juicy thing everyone loves now while remaining bone dry. I must've burned through 15 or 20 crowlers of that this summer.

Without poring over a list of every single beer I've had this year (saving that for New Year's), I would say off the cuff top of my head that Salut au Monde is probably my favorite thing I had all year. I drank a ton of it and was bummed once it finally started fading from shelves.

 

I hereby nominate the Bell’s 35th anniversary expedition stout.

 

Besides the Founders KBS Maple Mac Fudge, I would nominate Smog City's "Weather Machine" hazy; the best beer almost no one got to drink because it was only brewed for about 2 months and received only 3 or 4 reviews on BA. Best IPA I recall drinking...ever.

 

Brewing Projekt Southern Hemisphere IPA was awesome.

 

What new beers released in 2020 do you consider outstanding? And why?

Zero Gravity Frankie
Debut release in May or June, this beer was a complete joy. Meant to be a "summer spritzer" the crew at ZG intentionally made a warm weather refresher out of category. It's an Ale with tart cherry and a few "exotic" citrus fruits that I can't recall. Grapefruit notes. What makes this beer so great is the pleasing balance of the cherry and citrus. A little bit tart, very bright notes, but still has a nice malt body to make you feel like your drinking a beer. Similar to a shandy. A total home run in my opinion and I think the response locally really surprised everyone. Hope to see larger batches next summer!!!

 

At The Still Point Of The Turning World⠀by Keeping Together - one of the most incredible saisons I've ever head, most especially for such a young, new brewery.

3288 by Kane - their anniversary beers are always excellent, but this German chocolate cake inspired variation is one of their best yet.

Viola Sofia by Grassroots/Hill Farmstead - a stunningly expressive, non-adjucted stout, and for that to be in an age of pastry stouts is even more impressive.

Blessed by Anchorage - I think this absurd pastry stout was on a lot of people's lists, and the fact that it lived up to the high expectations I had set for it was begrudgingly enough for me.

Force of Will by Tree House - this reminded me of the kind of experience that Tree House delivered in the early days of the NE IPA explosion.

 

Greater Heights Brewing - Houston, TX
Bourbon Legend - Barleywine - English 11.6% ABV
I'm not a fan of most barley wines because they can be overly sweet to me. This one has a nice smokey/nutty flavor with hints of coffee and bourbon. Nice and boozy too.

 

That’s both an easy and a hard question at the same time. I love Resident Culture beers, and imo their beers are every bit as good as anything that comes out of Trillium or Treehouse. But they do make a lot of ones offs that are just tremendous beers, not much of a “core” lineup. So they make lots of great beers that are new, so I’d say Resident Culture but it might be a list 20 beers long. The ones I gravitate to are their NEIPAS, that’s the ones I think are tremendous, they also have a young barrel program and they do sours as well. Those I’m not familiar with.

 

Thundertaker by Revolution. I'd say more but @CB_Michigan covered it.